A Close Call
by BreatheSummerBay
Summary: This is a one shot of what I wanted to happen when Charlie got shot by Jake. Will she survive or not?


_I know it happened quite awhile ago, but this is just a one shot of what I wanted to happen when Jake shot Charlie. I hope you like it, and please leave a review (: xxx _

**A Close Call: **

It was the morning of Charlie, Brax, Casey and Ruby's last day in Summer Bay. The sun was shining brightly, and Charlie wanted to look her very best for her last day. Being a police officer had run in her family, so she wanted to make the most of it today. Brax had gone off to Angelo's to clear any last minute issues. He had decided it was a good way for Heath to learn how to take responsibility, so he decided to pass the business down to his brother. Just to make sure that things wouldn't get out of control, Brax made it clear to him that he would come back to the bay every weekend to check on him. Even though Heath and Liam were far from the best of friends, they were going to be the new co-owners.

Casey and Ruby were at Leah's house with Charlie. The two teenagers were packing last minute items, and checking that everything was either boxed up or thrown into the bin. Charlie, on the other hand, was ironing her police uniform. As much as her dad would've disagreed with her about quitting the police force, she knew this was the right thing to do. She hoped that he would've been proud of her for trying to make a good impression on the last day. Her police uniform had only been washed the night before, and she kept ironing it until every little spec of it was perfect.

"Charlie, you'll be alright on your own here, yeah?" Ruby called out to her mum.  
>"Yeah, of course I will. Where are you and Casey heading off to?" Charlie asked.<br>"We're going to meet April, Dex, Xavier, Sasha, Indi and Romeo at the diner to say goodbye."  
>"Okay, don't stay out for too long. We'll be leaving as soon as I come back home from my shift."<br>"Oh yup. Once Brax gets back from the restaurant, we're going to go to their house to put all their stuff in Brax's ute. The three of us will come back here straight afterwards."  
>"Okay, give him my love when you see him!"<br>"We would have without needing you to tell us Charlie," Casey joked as he and Ruby walked out the door.

After moving the iron up and down her police uniform for the last ten minutes, Charlie finally walked into her room to get dressed. She pulled her pants up slowly, and did the button up. She then buckled her belt up, and attached all the fancy police gadgets to it. Just as a joke, she put one of the handcuffs around her left arm to see how it felt like to be on the other side of the law. It felt extremely uncomfortable. Once she took it off, she put her arms through the sleeves of her shirt, and did the buttons up slowly. She turned around to face her full length mirror. Grabbing her badge off the table, she pinned it to her shirt and had a good long stare at it through the mirror. She left her hands on it after she had put it on. So many memories flashed into her head. Remembering all the crimes she had solved during these past few years made her tear up a little. She was going to miss being Sergeant Charlie Buckton after working so hard to get to this point, but it was definitely worth it if she was going to make a fresh start with Brax, Ruby and Casey.

Charlie looked from the mirror to her watch. She had about five minutes left before she was due to drive to work. There was a knock at the door. She called out Ruby's name but there was no answer. She walked out of her room and into the living room. There stood Jake Pirovic in the house, pointing a gun at her. She was completely shocked to see him again.  
>"Hello Sergeant, this is for my brother." That's all he said. Two gun shots were fired straight after, and before she knew it, everything had gone black.<p>

Brax, Casey and Ruby walked into Leah's house, holding half empty boxes to which the small items belonging to Charlie would go in. They were all fooling around in a good mood, but that immediately changed when they saw Charlie lying on the ground as still as a rock. All three of them dumped the boxes beside the door and raced over to Charlie's side. Ruby had no idea what was going on, and started to sob. She kept asking Brax what happened to Charlie, while he was trying to do CPR. Brax tried to be a bit more use to Ruby, but they were both on the same boat. Neither of the two knew what was going on. All they knew was that Charlie was unconscious, and Brax was trying his hardest to keep her heart pumping. He shouted at Casey to call for the ambulance. He was doing everything he could to keep his beautiful girlfriend alive.

Fortunately, the ambulance and police arrived at the house only minutes later. Charlie was getting carried onto the ambulance, and was rushed to the hospital immediately. The police started asking Brax questions, hoping he would know who shot her. He couldn't give them any clear and straight answers. Due to being bothered by Geoffrey King for the past few weeks, he told the cops that it could've been him, and ran out the door as quickly as he could to take Ruby and Casey to the hospital. Other officers began to mark off the house as a crime scene, just as Leah and Elijah walked through the door. Leah couldn't bear to look at the ground of her house. Charlie's blood stains were there. After living in this house for all these years, she thought it would be safe, but she thought wrong. The police asked her who she thought it was, but was interrupted by a call. There was only one thing she could remember; the noises outside her kitchen window. She started telling Elijah, but the officer had just gotten off the phone to tell her that Jake Pirovic got out of jail a week ago. This pointed the finger to him being guilty.

The doctors were trying to take Charlie to theatre as soon as she got to the hospital. Dr. Walker had told Ruby and Brax to move back because they were in the way. Those two, along with Casey watched as the doctors took Charlie away. Ruby bursted into tears, and Brax pulled her in to give her a cuddle. They just stood there, hoping Charlie would come out of theatre as quickly as possible.

Leah, along with a few other police officers arrived at the hospital shortly after. Ruby leaped off her chair and ran into Leah's arms.  
>"Someone shot her," she told her.<br>"They think it was Jake Pirovic," Leah replied.  
>Unfortunately, Brax also heard her saying this. He got out of his seat as fast as a cheetah and headed down the corridor. Casey knew his brother would try to hunt Jake down.<br>"Jake will be out there looking for you," exclaimed Casey, while trying to push his brother away from going out the door.  
>"I'm counting on it Casey," replied Brax and pushed Casey out of his way. Casey, Ruby and Leah watched as Brax drive off into the distance in his car.<p>

Brax opened the door of his house quickly but remained outside, leaning against the wall on the side of the door. He knew Jake was waiting for him inside. Jake was breathing extremely loudly so Brax could hear where in the house he was. Brax saw Jake turning his back to the door, so he raced inside the house, hiding behind the wall which was opposite the bedrooms. It took Jake long enough to realise Brax was in the house. Jake kept pointing the gun at all directions. He then headed towards the doorway, waiting for Brax to come out. Being too focused on timing his gun shot right, Jake didn't notice Brax coming at him out of nowhere. Brax grabbed at him and forced his arms away from him so that he wouldn't get shot. They kept wrestling at each other, causing Jake to drop the gun in between the kitchen sink and oven. Brax was desperately trying to get the gun out, but Jake had already run out of the house. A few minutes later, Brax got the gun out and also went outside. He saw Jake driving off in his car, and followed him closely in his ute.

Brax tried his hardest to get in front of Jake. Those two were acting as if this was some joy ride. Brax squeezed through in his car and ended up blocking Jake's car from driving any further without crashing. The two of them got out of the car and started fighting each other.  
>"I'm going to kill you," that's all Brax said.<br>Blood stains, bruises and cuts were already appearing on both men's skin. Before things could get even more out of control, a few police officers had followed them to the beach and were attempting to stop the fight. They were trying to pull Brax and Jake off each other, but neither of the two wanted to know about it. They were forced onto the ground, and the police escorted them into different police cars.

Casey and Ruby were sitting on the seats at the hospital, waiting for Charlie to come out of theatre. They saw the doctors pulling Charlie's bed into another room. Ruby went up to Dr Walker as fast as she could. All she wanted to know was if her mum was going to be alright or not. The fact that Dr Walker made her sit down before telling her what the situation was made her even more worried.  
>"Your mum's injuries are very extensive. She lost a lot of blood before she got here," began Dr. Walker.<br>Tears were starting to appear in Ruby's eyes. "But you've fixed her right? She's going to be okay?"  
>"We don't know for sure yet. She lost a lot of blood before she got here."<br>"I don't understand. I saw her before when you pulled her out. She was breathing."  
>"She's breathing because of all the machines."<br>"Can't you tell me if she's going to be alright? Can't you do more stuff on her?"  
>"I'm sorry Ruby, we can't. Time will tell if she survives or not."<br>Casey buried his face into his hands. He couldn't stand watching his girlfriend this upset. He pulled Ruby into him and she started crying on his shoulder. Leah couldn't watch Ruby either. She turned to Elijah and cried as he gave her a hug.

Casey was trying to get hold of Brax who had just been released from the police station for hunting Jake down. The phone kept ringing, but nobody picked up. Casey knew his brother had to hear this from him, so he told Leah to take Ruby home while he went off to find Brax.  
>"Brax, you've got to talk to Ruby," shouted Casey.<br>"Why?" yelled Brax.  
>"You've just got to talk to her."<br>"Stop messing with me Case! Just tell me what's going on," Brax demanded.  
>"Fine. Dr. Walker told us that they don't know if Charlie has made it through or not."<br>"What do you mean they don't know? They're doctors. They're suppose to be the experts who can fix Charlie up not us."  
>"I don't know okay? Just talk to Ruby would you?"<br>"Nah, I'm not going to. I'm going to the hospital."  
>"Dude, it's so late. At least wait until the morning, even Ruby's gone home."<br>"Fine, but I'm waking up early to go. You can come if you want."

It was only seven o'clock the next morning, and the sun was shining ever so brightly. Usually at this time of the day, Brax would be out on the beach surfing, but today was different. All he cared about was Charlie. All he could think about was Charlie. All his dreams last night were about Charlie. All he wanted was for her to be alright. He knocked on Casey's door, yelling at him to get up as it was time to go to the hospital already. Within ten minutes, both boys had gotten out of the house and into the car.

They decided to stop at Leah's house because it was on the way to the hospital. They might as well have as Ruby would probably want to be at her mum's bed side too. Surprisingly, Ruby was already up on her feet. She was just about to catch the bus to the hospital.  
>"Good thing Brax and Casey swung over," she thought. The drive to the hospital was completely silent. Judging from the marks around Brax and Casey's eyes, Ruby wasn't the only one who hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night. She had been crying all night. Leah and VJ didn't seem to notice. Ruby couldn't understand how they could have slept so well knowing what state Charlie was in, as well as sleeping in a house where someone got shot.<p>

Once they arrived at the hospital, Brax wanted some alone time with Charlie. As much as Ruby wanted to see her mum, she agreed and allowed Brax to have a couple of minutes. Brax went into the hospital room and closed the door behind him. It scared him a little bit inside to see Charlie hooked up to so many machines. She was usually up and about doing many active activities. He grabbed a chair and placed it right next to her bed. He picked her hand up gently and pressed it against his lips. Having a little hint of hope, Brax began to tell her stories about the times they had together that neither of the two wanted the rest of the public to know about. He leaned over the bed and gave her a kiss on the lips before he went to get Ruby and Casey. Just as he was about to leave the room, he heard another voice. It was more like a whisper, but it definitely sounded like it came from Charlie. He turned around to face her, but she didn't say anything else. Her eyes began to flicker. Brax had no idea what was going on. He ran out of the room and practically dragged a doctor to come and check to see if everything was alright. Ruby and Casey raced into the room as well.  
>"Charlie, squeeze my hand if you can hear me," Dr. Walker said.<br>She did. "Does this mean Charlie's alive!" shouted Ruby.  
>Nobody needed to answer her. Charlie's eyes were now wide open and she tried to force a big smile on her face. Ruby ran over to the bed and gave her mum the biggest hug.<br>"Mummy," was all she said, and tears of happiness ran down her cheeks. Both Brax and Ruby were ever so close to losing the person they loved the most. Brax knew how much he loved Charlie, and couldn't bear the thought of almost losing her again. Once Ruby stopped cuddling her mum, Brax got down on his knees and said, "Charlie will you marry me?"  
>Nobody saw this coming. Brax hadn't either until just a few minutes ago. Ruby let out a scream and had the biggest grin on her face. They all knew this was too much excitement for Charlie as she hadn't even recovered yet, but everyone understood how much she and Brax loved each other. Even though Charlie could hardly show her enthusiasm, she said yes as loudly as she can. Brax went over to her and whispered "I love you" in her ear before the two of them kissed.<p> 


End file.
